Where canal meets sea...

LAN­CASTER CANAL

THE WIN­TER en­gi­neer­ing pro­gramme on the canals and rivers ap­proaches its end, our pic­ture shows a rather dif­fer­ent lock gate re­place­ment project. This is the sea lock at Glas­son Dock, where in­land boats cruis­ing down the arm from the Lan­caster Canal meet sea-go­ing craft based at the dock.

De­spite the wooden gates be­ing more than 40 years old (re­tired vet­eran lock-keeper John Hol­stein can’t re­call them be­ing re­placed) they’re be­ing re-planked for fur­ther use – their long life be­ing put down to the heav­ier than usual con­struc­tion and the dense green­heart tim­ber used. Ex­po­sure to sea wa­ter has led to some dif­fer­ent wildlife, as canal su­per­vi­sor Dave Brad­bury pointed out: “We dis­cov­ered hun­dreds of small eels, crabs and shrimps cling­ing to the wood, and the frames were cov­ered in bar­na­cles.”